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Wireless charging - the future for electric cars

It's electric, and like all battery-operated automobiles needs regular charging. "The charging is done wirelessly, you park up, turn off the key and voila... charging starts automatically," says Anthony Thomson, CEO of HaloIPT, a UK company that has installed the technology. The process uses electromagnetic induction to transfer power from a pad built into the ground to another installed in the bottom of the car. The system could be installed in a supermarket parking place, garage floor or the ground at a special charging station. When a driver parks the vehicle, the two pads line up and with a flick of a switch, the charging starts.

Katy Perry leads MTV nominations

US pop star Katy Perry leads the way at this year's MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) with nine nominations. The singer's nods include video of the year for Firework, best pop video and best special effects. British singer Adele and Kanye West picked up seven nominations apiece. Other multiple nominees included Lady Gaga, Beyonce, and Bruno Mars. The VMAs are scheduled to take place on 28 August in Los Angeles and will be broadcast live in the US. Perry, who married comedian Russell Brand last year, was also nominated for best female video, best collaboration, best art direction and best cinematography.

Texas executes 9/11 'revenge' killer

A man who embarked on a shooting spree in what he claimed was retaliation for 9/11 has been executed at a prison in Texas. The lone survivor of Mark Stroman's attack on convenience store workers in late 2001, Rais Bhuiyan, originally from Bangladesh, unsuccessfully sued to stop the execution, saying his religious beliefs as a Muslim required him to forgive the man. Stroman claimed the shooting spree that killed two men and injured a third targeted people from the Middle East, though all three victims were from south Asia. It was the death of 49-year-old Vasudev Patel, from India, that put Stroman on death row. Stroman's execution was the eighth this year in Texas.

Mac OS X Lion pounces

As promised, Apple let Mac OS X Lion out of its cage this morning. Version 10.7 of the operating system has more than 250 new features, Apple said, but an installation disc isn't one of them: it's available today for $29.99 as a 3.49GB download only. Apple enjoys pushing the computing industry into the future by dropping technology it deems to be from the past-for example floppy drives missing from the first iMac-and those who want a real-world copy of the OS will have to wait until Apple releases it on a USB thumb drive next month for $69. The Mac OS X download, available through the Mac App Store, dovetails with Apple's new MacBook Air and Mac Mini Lion-based computers. These new models are updated with Intel's modern Sandy Bridge processors and a high-speed Thunderbolt data transfer port-and none has a DVD drive for the next OS upgrade.

Google+ For iPhone Now The Top Free App In iTunes

Google+ for iPhone hit Apple's App Store a mere 24 hours ago but it's being downloaded like wildfire as it currently sitting atop the heap as the most popular free app available from iTunes. This is big news considering Google+ is still invitation-only and only has 18 million users so far, compared to Facebook's 750 million. That said, Google+ users can now upload contacts from Outlook and Mac address books (not Facebook, though), which may result in even bigger Google+ adoption numbers.

Steve Jobs dismisses rumors of his successor

Apple CEO and cancer survivor Steve Jobs is not keen on discussing speculation about who will replace him when the inevitable happens. This week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the company's board of directors have been discussing plans about who will take over the position that has been held by Jobs since the late 1990s, and perhaps the title that some will always bestow upon Jobs and Jobs alone, once the man is no longer able to hold the position himself. The Journal said it had credible information that the board has already been meeting with headhunters and "at least one head of a high-profile technology company."

Showing posts with label Ennis house sells. Show all posts

Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis house sells for $4.5m

Ennis House was originally put on the market in 2009 for $15m but the sale price was later lowered. The building needs substantial restoration work.

It was bought by supermarket tycoon Ron Burkle who will continue renovating it, the building's sellers announced.

Built in 1924, the house overlooks Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles.

It has featured in several films including Blade Runner, House on Haunted Hill and Grand Canyon.

But the house was severely damaged after a 1994 earthquake and during record rainfall in 2005 and it has also suffered from delayed maintenance, the Ennis House Foundation said in a statement on its website.

"Mr. Burkle has a track record of preserving important historic homes, and we know he'll be an excellent steward of the Ennis House," the statement said.

'Textile block' icon
The foundation estimates it has already spent $6.5m on repairs for the house.

When the house was first put up for sale the foundation estimated that it would need up to $7m of renovations to return the house to its original state.

At about 6,200 sq ft (576 sq m), it is the largest of Frank Lloyd Wright's four Los-Angeles "textile block" houses.

These experimental houses are made up of patterned and perforated concrete blocks, which lend them a unique textual appearance - Ennis House was constructed from more than 27,000 concrete blocks.

It was originally built for the men's clothing chain owners Charles and Mabel Ennis but it has changed hands several times since then.

It is unclear exactly what the new owner plans to do with the house. But the Ennis House Foundation said that Mr Burkle will provide public access to the house for a minimum of 12 days each year.

A spokesman for the foundation says it expects Mr Burkle will use the house for fundraising and other events, the Associated Press news agency reports.

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